Edward Gibbon, an English historian, published The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. This is Chapter 21 of that work. He follows Rome from the prosperous age of Trajan and the Antonines, around the year 100, through the fall of the West and on to the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453.

Chapter 21 takes up persecution of heresy—The schism of the Donatists—The Arian controversy—Athanasius—Distracted state of the church and empire under Constantine and his sons—Toleration of paganism. The footnotes are not in this reading; what you have is the narrative.